You can download this volume here - Electric Scotland

2 Professor Walter W. Skeat
think it may suffice to exhibit, side by side, some of the passages
in which the poems resemble one another. I will, however, give
one of the details
grammatical by way of specimen.
In the Kingis
>uair we find the
pp. of the verb * to take '
in the monosyllabic form tak or take^ or in the dissyllabic form
takin (st. 24) ; and in no other form. But in J. and L. the
infinitive is both tak and ta. Tak occurs in rime; J. 154, L. 473.
Ta occurs in rime, J. 73 ; in L. we can infer it from tats, '
takes,'
riming with gais, 'goes, fats, 'foes'; 1095, 1141, 3005. But
the pp. is not only tak (in rime), J. 452, L. 296 ; it is also tane or
tone, J. 575, L. 1054, 1060, etc. The riming of words ending
in -on (from A.S. -an) with the French dispone (J. 266, L. 154) is
noticeable. As to word-forms, I will merely cite destitude (in
rime), J. 523, L. 96, 193 ; used instead of destitute.
Both poems afford rather frequent reminiscences of Chaucer.
Note, for example, Chaucer's line in the Knightes Tale, A 1500:
*
And, for to doon his observaunce to May.'
The thirteenth line of the >uair is :
* And unto Maij to done their observaunce.'
The author of L. has not forgotten it ; see lines 12-16 :
* to schew the kalendis of May, . . .
The old wsage of lowis [love's] obseruans/
But, of course, the fact that both poems copy Chaucer is ot
no great significance. The only curious circumstance here is that
both poems make a similar reference just at the very same point,
at the same distance from the beginning.
I here notice the fact which gave one the first hint,
viz. the
extraordinary prolixity in the style. J. begins with a portentous
sentence thirty-two lines in length. L. begins with a succession
of long sentences, of which the first extends to sixteen lines at
least, followed by And and ten lines more. Clause follows clause,
quite loosely joined together, as though the object were to avoid
coming to a full stop. This should be particularly observed, as
well as the monotonously excessive use, in both poems, of a
caesura at the end of the fourth syllable.
J. begins with an Introduction, in ten-syllable couplets, of 190
lines. L., which is mainly a translation from the French, begins
with a
general introduction of 195 lines, with a more particular
introduction
having reference to the subject.
It is here that we
should look for the
parallel passages; and they are not difficult
to find. I now quote them, keeping to the order in J.